The EU's future in the balance

Monday 1 July 2002 23:00 BST

Evening Standard editorial comment

Taking over the EU presidency this week, Denmark will have to confront head-on a subject which makes politicians scatter for the nearest exit. Its name is the Common Agricultural Policy, and it has emerged as the pivotal issue for the future of the EU. The CAP has forced itself to the fore because this is the year in which the EU makes an irrevocable decision: whether it goes for enlargement or retreats into its shell and condemns Europe to a prolonged division between the interests of East and West. Denmark, in common with Britain and most EU nations, views the introduction of 10 new member countries as an historic opportunity to end that division and forge a union of 500 million people which could become the most powerful economic unit on the globe.

But blocking the path to this vision is the CAP. At the moment, subsidising European agriculture costs nearly half the EU's annual budget. Enlargement would add another £8 billion to that bill by 2006, and even then farmers in the new member nations, though generally much poorer than those already in the EU, stand to get only a quarter as much aid. The answer, as every Brussels official agrees, is to reform the CAP and lessen the huge subsidies given to farmers. But successive French leaders, knowing the capacity of their farmers to bring France to a standstill, have refused to countenance reform. If anybody can force through changes it should be President Chirac with his fresh and unprecedentedly large mandate.

There are smaller hurdles to be overcome before the hard talking starts in mid-October. Ireland has to approve enlargement in a second referendum, (the first, a year ago, narrowly failed); and a device must be found to persuade Turkey to allow Cyprus EU membership, without which Greece is determined to veto enlargement. But the CAP is the bedrock of the EU, and its reform is key to the integrity of a wider European economic community. It must not be fudged this time.

Low grades

The Conservatives' proposal that A/S levels should be abolished is to be welcomed, not only because this is the first sign of active policymaking from the opposition on education, but because the suggestion is the right one. ASlevels, supported by Tory and Labour governments, were intended to broaden the sixth form curriculum. Parents, teachers, a Cabinet Office report, and even one of the ASlevel's progenitors, Dr Nick Tate, headmaster of Winchester College and one-time head of the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority, have all said the exams create undue strain on pupils, damaging extra-curricular activities as well as education in the wider sense.

Obviously, examinations are important; but to end three school years with GSCE, AS-level and A-level, is too much. The Tories suggest schools adopt the International Baccalaureate, already being considered by some top independent schools, a general paper in addition to A-levels or wider, unexamined study outside them. They rightly observe that it is not enough simply to drop the AS-level, without addressing the fact that the A-level is too narrow but adding another layer of exams is not the answer: as anxious pupils, parents and teachers can attest in droves. Education Secretary Estelle Morris should have the courage to scrap AS-levels, while developing a coherent series of qualifications that satisfies the needs of pupils, employers and universities.

Driven to despair

Another five per cent rise in black cab fares starting next weekend will dismay Londoners. The disproportionate increase, approved by Ken Livingstone, comes on top of the 30 per cent hike in night fares less than nine months ago and an above-inflation increase last year. The rises are part of the Mayor's effort to encourage more black cabs on London's roads. That policy is not working.

The big increase in night fares has not resulted in more drivers operating at the crucial hours of 10pm to midnight. Londoners feel conned. Cabbies have not fulfilled their side of the bargain by turning out at night. The drivers say they are "satisfied" with the rises. They should not be. They will find their short term advantage backfiring, as they price themselves out of the market and more people start using minicabs. If that happens, the licensed drivers will have only themselves to blame.